Thursday, July 31, 2008

What can be said about Brian Eno that hasn't already been said? NOTHING. So instead of me verbally ass kissing for an hour read this. Either way this guys is brilliant. And crazy. And crazy brilliant. He is an amazing producer and an even better artist. I am not in love with his ambient work, but it's still pretty impressive especially since he basically created the modern genre. This is the CD that started my love affair with Eno. Still holds a very special place in my heart... right next to filet mignon and girls with big butts. Like any good artist though... it's difficult to say which thing he's done is his best. With a career that spans like 30 some odd years, this is a good place to start (at the begining duh).

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Hello boys and girls. I told you i was gonna post something else the guys from The Notwist helped create. So, here it is. Probably my favorite band they have contributed to beside their own. I don't have all the songs off of their other albums mainly cause I can't find the shit ANYWHERE on the Internet or in any record store. But I do have "Faking the Books" which I personally think is their best work anyway, although each album has it's ups and downs. This one is their most recent before they went to work on side projects or back to their own bands. The entire reason why i even gave these guys a listen was because Thom Yorke revealed in some interview all the music he was listening to while writing and recording Kid A. Needless to say, because i loved Kid A, i was intrigued. This led me to discover many awesome new bands including Autechre, Sigur Ros, and of course Lali Puna! Gee, thanks Thom Yorke! You can literally tell in some Radiohead songs that he rips off the style of all these bands in the most blatant fashion possible. But hey, at least he does it well. Back to Lali Puna. The lead singer is this chick Valerie Trebeljahr (I had to look that shit up) who basically sounds like a call girl molesting you through the phone. Only she isn't talking to you about sex, but rather how shitty and paranoid the world is. Way to kill my boner Valerie. The sound as a whole is very distant and alienated yet her warm quiet vocals bring you back to reality. Even if the reality is that shit is totally fucked up. It's depressing in the most beautiful way possible. Enjoy.

For being one of the coolest guys alive, a lot of my friends don't know shit about this guy. This post is for them, cause i know the rest of the world realizes the genius that is James Murphy. As far as his sound, I generally describe it as electronic / dance music / punk rock with elements of disco. I dunno... It's definitely catchy. It's definitely dance-worthy. But it also has so much depth and style that it's just so hard to put down. Some songs remind me of Brian Eno or Talking Heads, while others have a Pavement-esque, post punk feel. Either way, I don't think there is a guy out there today making this style of music as well as he does.

First lets start with the Self-titled debut. It's not may favorite, okay? Wanna know why? Tough, it's my blog and I'm gonna say some shit. The album just isn't consistent. It lacks a sense of direction and conciseness . That being said, it also has a few select tracks that rock my world hardcore. These tracks are: Beat Connection, Disco Infiltrator, and Movement. "Give It Up" receives a nod of the head, but the continuous repeating of one line for like 2 minutes makes what was a pretty cool song into kind of annoying. I also heard that he didn't script his lyrics for this album, he just free-styled in the studio. He wanted the lyrics to seem spontaneous or something. Admirable, but a mistake for such a smart guy, who, in his next record proves how brilliant he can be if he sits down with a pen. However the other three tracks are the shit. I wouldn't even post this album if it weren't for those tracks, that's how much they rock.

Now for "Sound of Silver". I bought this album because all the critics were juicing in their pants over it. I listened to it once, and wrote it off as way overrated. So i put the album away for about a few months, let my musical pallet expand, and then came back to it (I think because i heard "Get Innocuous" so many times while playing GTA), listened to it for REAL and finally realized why everyone was stroking this man's chubby. This album is, for all intents and purposes, the BEST dance/indie rock hybrid record ever. I realized i was just not getting the humor mixed with dead serious lyrics. What i thought were cheesy lines actually made me chuckle the second time around. Lyrics like, "Oh i don't know, oh, where to begin / We are North Americans / And for those of you who still think we're from England / We're like ... 'no'..." You just have to decipher when he's being all tongue and cheeky and when he is trying to blow your fucking mind. Which is almost every track. The song All My Friends has got to be one of the most well composed songs I have ever heard. Lyrically this album is basically about getting older, having no regrets while regretting everything at once (I'm simplifying here of course). But honestly, there isn't ONE weak song on here. If you give the album enough time, every song becomes awesome in it's own right. The album is so much more conducive than his self-titled. I just plain don't get bored of this album. I listen to it at least once a week regardless of what else I've been listening to. But seriously, Check this shit. It will change your life. (Self titled is in two parts cause it's huge)

Like OMG! Kevin Drew. He is totally the lead singer of Broken Social Scene. If i were a woman i would let him do unspeakable things to my vagina. Luckily I'm not (boobies are hard to manage i hear), so i guess he will have to settle for my ass. At least what i keep telling him at shows when i see him. (Why won't you return my calls KEV-O?) But seriously, BSS makes some of my most favorite modern music to date. Just to give you some perspective on how awesome these guys are, some of the members of BSS are in / have been in: Stars, The American Analog Set, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Metric, Do Make Say Think, The Apostle of Hustle, The Dears, and of course Fiest. (I'm tired of linking shit. Look em up yerself sherlock) I mean, come on. ALL of those bands are pretty freakin sweet man. I own at least one CD by every one of those bands. However, the usual complaint about BSS is that they are too freakin HUGE. Not like fat huge, but like 19 members and growing huge (see above list). Half the time they can't get like 20% of the band to tour. And the BACK UP members are usually huge stars in their own right (i.e. FIEST). You can see how, with that many musical masterminds in a room, it could sometimes be hard to have a focus or a direction. But alas, the problem is solved. The solution you ask? A: ONE EGO at a time please. The result is this album... which is fucking awesome. I think i've listened to this album on repeat maybe 1000 times. Did i mention i love hyperbole? HYPERBOLE IS FUCKING AMAZING. There is a another "BSS presents" album out with cofounder Brendan Canning, which is also pretty gosh darn good. I'll probably post that jazz too. This is gonna be a long ass series if they have to go through everyone. Here's to hoping!

Monday, July 28, 2008

Ah, The Notwist. These guys are one of my favorites. Mostly cause they share a progression of musical taste similar to mine. And let's be honest. I'm important. They started out as a punk rock / hard core band back in the early 90's (The Notwist), then progressed into a sort of post punk / indie rock phase (Nook and 12), then into some sort of jazz/electronica/experimental hybrid (Shrink). After that, they made a more pop sensible electronic music that most people know as Neon Golden. That is the only record i can find in pretty much any record store, so that's what most people know unfortunately. Two of the members also work with other AWESOME bands like Lali Puna (a band which Tom Yorke was listening to while recording Kid A), 13 and God (A sweet ass electronic hip hop group with members of Themselves and Subtle who are also awesome in their own right), and various other goodies.

These guys know how to compose a fucking song in almost any genre. How cool is that shit? Let me answer for you. IT'S FUCKING COOL. Now this is their new album The Devil, You and Me. This album, like their last few albums are mostly electronic with sporadic live drums strewn throughout. It's a little less formulaic than Neon Golden, and even though i really liked Neon Golden, it's one downfall was that it was a little TOO straight-forward. Thus, this new album is yet another welcome transition in a band that transitions like it's their job (which it is i think). Either way, I am just glad that these guys finally freakin released an album again. It took them like what, 6 years or something. They have musical ADHD they just can't stop helping other people make good music. Next post will probably be one of the bands i listed above or possibly more Notwist. Message me if you care which one. Enough babbling, you just want music anyway, don't you?

This is the singer from Sunny Day Real Estate. You know, possibly the only band to do EMO correctly and simultaneously invent the genre at the same time. But don't be fooled it's not like modern day emo which makes my ears bleed and also makes me get bad hair cuts like Toby Maguire in Spiderman 3. You know... where he combs his hair to the side and puts on mascara so that we KNOW he's bad. Not like punching his once attractive girlfriend in face wasn't hinting enough. But NO, there's none of that. This album is the album after the first (and the only good) two Sunny Day albums. He apparently got very depressed, locked himself in a room for a year to figure life out and came out loving Jesus like CRAZY. It pretty much made me hate him for a while, but then i got over it and listened to this album which he recorded right afterwards. Just a note, he doesn't say the word "God" or "Jesus" once in this album. Which i mean, JesusChrist, thank God. But like a true artist hides his feelings in ambiguous, intelligent, and very poetic lyrics. That's what i originally loved about SDRE's Diary (their best album IMO). It was like he wrote a serious poem first and then figured out a way to sing it in a song brilliantly, most of the time without even coming close to rhyming. Which is fucking hard to do, trust me. Example of one of my poems:

Something something something run

Something something something fun

Something something something sun

IT IS HARD NOT TO RHYME SHIT! Just ask any rapper. (and yes i stole that poem from Home Movies) Yet Jeremy rarely rhymes, sings like an angel and had more depth to his lyrics than most of the indie rockers combined. Let's just put it this way... I can't stand preachy religious people. Most spiritual people are okay, but there's nothing more annoying then someone pretending to know the mysteries of the universe shoving a bunch of outdated fiction down your throat. (Literally a priest tried to shove IT down my throat *soft sobbing*). If more people talked (or sang in this case) about god in this style, i think i would actually listen without going "la la la la laaaaaa" with my hands on my ears. Nuff said. Check it.

It's okay. No really, it's okay. No really! It's the band OKAY. (Get it?) Despite being the most commonly used word in ALL of the world (look it up, seriously), it's also the name of a few bands. But this band is the only "okay" you need to know about. These guy's are headed by a man named Marty Anderson. He is basically the shit. Also, he suffers from a terrible form of Crohn's disease, which makes you the shit, whether you want to or not. This confines him to his bedroom in his parents house in San Fran where he writes and records the majority of his bands amazing music. Here's an interview/article of Okay, if you're interested. Some people have described his voice as an alien insectoid... and they may be right. But to me it sounds like a blend of Mark Linkous (lead singer of Sparklehorse) and Devendra Banhart, which to me sounds pretty damn cool. On the first listen i was cringing at the sound of his voice, now i think it literally MAKES the music. I also tend to agree with the Silver Jew's lyric "all my favorite singers couldn't sing". Hey if you like shiny sparkly pro-tooled sounding voices go watch American Idol or something. Give him a few listens before judging, because it took me about three to REALLY appreciate it. His new album "Huggable Dust" is one of the years best in my opinion. Although i think i appreciate the universality of his lyrics in his earlier work. His older album "High Road / Low Road" is basically an indie rock "Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness" double album of sorts, but you can buy them separately. I like it all though, so here's everything!

First blog post ever. Just wanted to establish what kind of shindig this is gonna be. I personally love music blogs, but i also like insight, humor, and most of all devilish handsomeness, all of which i posses in massive quantities. (sigh) So anywho... I'm gonna try to stick to things i think are interesting and not try to stroke my own ego or get all self-indulgent like i know most blogs can. Basically things to expect: music, shameless plugging of my friends, social commentary and maybe an offensive, politically incorrect remark or photograph. Enjoy.

SUPER SERIOUS DISCLAIMER

Please note that none of the music here is meant to be kept for longer than 24 hours. The music here is for PREVIEW purposes only. After that it should be either purchased or deleted. None of the links belong to me, however, I can and will remove them from this blog at the request of the artist and/or the record company. As far as I know, the music posted is from artists who don't mind sharing/previewing their music. If this is not the case, please email me or leave a message in the shout box if you wish to contatct me about any issue.